De La Salle Parents’ Network

Once again we started the year with our very successful Welcome Pizza Night. Many new parents come and have a chance to meet other parents from their son’s Homeroom. The evening was a great success and many new friendships were formed. The emphasis of this year was the Centenary Celebrations and we put our usual Network commitments on the back-burner so we could give our full support to the numerous functions that were held throughout the year. I was fortunate enough to be asked to join the Centenary Organizing Committee and spent the last 18 months getting to know the other committee members and be part of planning the hugely successful functions that have been held this year. At each of these functions, the Parent Network was heavily involved by providing a never-ending supply of enthusiastic volunteers who assisted with setting up, decorating, serving, directing, selling (and the hated job of tidying up!). One of the big pluses for the year was the establishment of a Class Representative list. With Clare Boek’s invaluable help in establishing the initial contact, a group of 40 parents emailed or rang the school community to encourage them to form tables for the Centenary Dinner. On the night we had 180 current parents attend and I know from speaking to as many as possible that the night was thoroughly enjoyed. Our finances were given a healthy boost by Br Paul generously giving us all the proceeds from the Centenary Raffle. More than $17,000 was raised. The 1st and 3rd prize was won by existing school families with 2nd prize going to a staff member. At our AGM we were able to donate $25,000 to the school for the Tiverton Garden project which brings the total to $65,000 over the last three years. No mean feat in this economic climate. My job is made so much easier with the support of a small but dedicated committee. This was evident at the beginning of this year when I unexpectedly had to go back to Perth for four months. To all of you who stepped up and ran things, my thanks. Never a year should go by without Trish Woodman being singled out for her support and guidance. Her absence for two months on long service was an interesting time, with yours truly pretending to know how to work the dishwasher in the PAC centre and adding enough powder to have froth billowing from the dreaded machine for the next 10 cycles. Br Paul has been his usual self, with his calm demeanour and unlimited knowledge. Our thanks. Back to normal in 2013, with the existing friendly faces and hopefully new ones. My thanks to you all. Mrs Virginia Fairchild